Hearts .... last of the dies

I was giving consideration to making the hearts from leather....and then reasoned i might not be able to fuse some of them....and it would be a bear to quilt.....so, i had a pile of crumb blocks and decided to use those.

I have about 75 of them.

I have cut out something with all the new dies.....i am happy now. hahahaha

Christmas Stars

Since Helen said the dogs would look good in a border, I decided the stars would work as a border, too. I decided the stars should be Christmas. I dug through my piles of Christmas fabrics and came up with something that I thought worked ok together. I cut a whole pile of stars.....from all the Christmas fabrics that I had.

I put the red and white stripe around the panel and added stars all around.I had one star left over....and put it in the middle. haha

I had some Christmas fabric that was rows of things, so that was the next border.

Then I decided it needed another red and white stripe border....since I had lots of stars left.

It is very colorful and busy.....just my style.

I love the ho ho star

This strip is part of the same fabric and will be the final border. 

I will use the red and white stripe for the binding once it is quilted. .... maybe by Christmas....no promises.

I have come up with a plan for the hearts, too. 

Blue and tan scrappiness

This has been sitting for several months....waiting for me to finish a few rows and get it all together.

It is 60x85

I was trying to use up some blue and tan scraps. the blue rows are 7" tall and the tan are 5". This bear was in a scrap pile so he got to play.

And, look...I found a little snowman to go in here, too.

Since the rows were all scrappy, I decided to scrappy up the border, too. Used up some larger scraps for that.

Michelle's Kitties

Thanks again, Michelle, for the kitty die. It was seriously a fun one. I have a top together....sort of... it still needs a final border. I'm trying to decide to just do the brown or something else. my choices are a bit limited.

There's one in every batch...who doesn't stay where they are supposed to.

This one dreams of being a lion

This is the mouser

This poor guy got his tail stuck in the door.

Then I had to embroider some squares....they are applique.  Cats and bags just seem to go together.

Little kitty stole a sock

The mouse looks like he is just daring the cat to come after him.

And you need a neon kitty, too. I am so proud of myself....the yarn ball was a separate design from the kitty with a piece of yarn in his mouth and i managed to get it lined up perfectly.

Little teacup kitty is just adorable.

And butterflies for the kitties to chase.

I have a few more empty blocks, but need to wait for the main embroidery machine to get back from the shop. The backup unit can't do the size i want to put in those blocks.

I better get back to my regularly scheduled programming. haha

More die cutting

You know when they say it is raining cats and dogs.....that what i have here.

My sister wanted some dogs, so today i cut out a bunch of 30 dogs for her....and a bunch for me, too. she is making dog quilts. not sure what i will do. I asked if she had a preference for fabrics or could i just do random. she said random works for her. i wonder if i will have to remind her that she said that. haha

I basically stayed in the black/brown/white piles of fabric. except for that one red one in there. and i couldn't resist making a 'cat face' dog. 

And another cat dog, too. haha   and even a horse dog. i turned a few the opposite direction.

And i cut out 30 crazy cats for me. 

I had some cat fabric, so i used a bit of that. 

And there is still enough of this mouse fabric to make a cat. I am really going to miss this fabric when I use it all up. i just have a little piece left.

I am so enamored with the cats, that i cut out dark chocolate brown blocks to fuse them onto, and found something for sashing, and a cat embroidery CD to add a little interest....and brought it all to the house to work on tonight. hahahaha

I really enjoy cutting things out and when i get new dies, have to jump in there and try them. I am in the process of cutting Christmas fabrics for the star. so far, I have cut 42 pieces.....and there is another large stack of Christmas fabric to go through. don't know how many I will wind up with. 

Not sure what to do with the heart. it has to be something special. any ideas for me?

Pumpkin Farm

While the embroidery machine is running, I try to stay close in case there is trouble. So, I was finishing up projects that were almost done. I started this Buttermilk Basin quilt some time ago...I want to say it started last year. I sure hope it wasn't the year before that....it would be pitiful. haha

It is about 30" square.

It is hanging crooked, but is actually straight. The middle is wool applique.

There are sunflower blocks...with a whole lot of pieces....and pumpkin blocks with flying geese.

And the usual fall blocks of leaves in the corners.

It is an adorable little wall hanging and will get quilted up....some day. haha

Things are happening around here....

I started an alphabet book, but ran out of things to use, so that is on hold till i find more goodies.

So, i started a number book. The numbers are machine appliqued and the things are machine embroidered. it was fun finding the right number of things that were the right size to fit on the page. I have a few done so far.

The pages are different colors. This is the front cover.

I learned out to add words on my embroidery machine and did this all in one pass. getting smarter in my old age. haha

I hope I used a monster that wasn't a scary one for little kids.

This is the back cover. All other numbers have 2 pages, but it worked out that this one went on one page. It's kind of tricky to make a book and get the right number of pages.

A lady on MQR was selling some of her dies, so I snatched up these small ones that I didn't have.

Today I dug through the tub of crazy quilt fabric that are fuzzy and different and cut out a couple sets of bears. so far, i have 22 but will do a few more tomorrow. i put fusible stuff on the back of most of them to try and control the fuzzies.

I'm going to cut out some crazy cats, too. 

I made a book

This is my first attempt at making a book. It's far from pretty but it's together. It's for a one year old who loves Hey Diddle Diddle. my next book will be nicer, since I learned what to do with this one. haha

The front and back cover have a thick, stiff piece inside.

The inside pages have batting inside.

The last page of Mary killed my embroidery machine once again. I was able to finish it on my backup machine.

This is the inside of the back cover and has her whole name on it but i don't show it all here. on the next book, this page will be inside the front cover.

I am going to make a couple more books....and a bag to carry them all in. She is currently an only child and loves to sit with her books.